PHILADELPHIA (AP) —Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 24 points, Tony Snell had 18 of his season-high 21 in the first half and the Milwaukee Bucks never trailed in a 112-98 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night.

Malcolm Brogdon and Khris Middleton added 13 apiece for the Bucks, who won their third straight game to stay close in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Milwaukee began the day 1 1/2 games behind Detroit for the final playoff spot in the East. The Pistons hosted Chicago on Monday night.

Justin Anderson tied his career high with 19 points for Philadelphia, which has lost five of six. The 76ers were without big man Jahlil Okafor (knee) for the second straight game. They are so short of bodies that they received a hardship exception to sign Shawn Long to a 10-day contract on Monday. Long, in his NBA debut, had 13 points and seven rebounds.

It was the second straight lopsided loss for the 76ers, who had just nine players when they allowed a season-high 136 points in a 30-point loss to the Pistons on Saturday night.

The Bucks had lost both previous meetings to Philadelphia, including a 114-109 loss in Milwaukee on Jan. 25 in which the 76ers scored 72 first-half points.

Philadelphia didn’t reach 72 points until the fourth quarter in this one.

Snell shot 7 of 10 from the field, including 4 of 6 on 3-pointers, to help the Bucks to a 60-43 halftime lead. The 76ers shot just 23.5 percent from the arc before halftime, making 4 of 17 long-range shots.

And the Bucks just kept pouring it on after the break, extending their lead to as many as 26 points midway through the third quarter.

TIP-INS

Bucks: Michael Beasley (hyperextended left knee) missed his third straight game. . After scoring 16 points in 17 minutes in Saturday’s 101-94 win over Toronto, Spencer Hawes had two points in six minutes. . Snell topped his previous season best of 20 points on Dec. 26 at Washington. His career high is 24 on Feb. 10, 2015, at Sacramento while a member of the Bulls. . The Bucks shot 49.4 percent (41 for 83) from the field.

76ers: Long was averaging 20.2 points and 11.1 rebounds for Delaware 87ers in the D-League. . Gerald Henderson returned after missing two straight games with a hip injury and scored five points in 17 minutes.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) —Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 13 of his 26 points in Detroit’s dominating third quarter, and the Pistons set a season high for points while rolling to a 136-106 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night.

The Pistons, holding the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, had lost two of three, including Wednesday’s 109-86 drubbing at New Orleans that resulted in coach Stan Van Gundy calling out point guard Reggie Jackson.

Van Gundy told reporters Friday that he wanted to see Jackson play with more energy and contemplated starting backup point guard Ish Smith over Jackson on Saturday. Jackson, though, did make the start and scored 21 points.

Already short-handed due to the loss of Joel Embiid (knee) for the season, not to mention the absence of No. 1 pick Ben Simmons (foot) all season, Philadelphia was without center Jahlil Okafor (right knee soreness) while playing the second game of a back-to-back set. Nik Stauskas had 24 points.

The Pistons put the game out of reach in the third quarter when they scored 39 points, the most they’ve scored in a third quarter this season, to expand their 67-52 halftime advantage to 106-82 entering the fourth.

Detroit led by as many as 30 points in the period and made 17 of 28 field goals, including 4 of 9 3-pointers. Drummond had eight points and six rebounds in the period.

Philadelphia was playing one night after a 105-102 home win over the Knicks. Justin Anderson tied his career high with 19 points and drew accolades for his defense on New York star Carmelo Anthony, who was 5 for 18 from the field. Anderson had five points against the Pistons.

The Pistons pulled away with a 19-4 run over the final 4:19 of the first half that broke a 48-all tie and gave Detroit a 15-point halftime lead. Smith had four points and three assists during the spurt, capping it with a high floater with 1.3 seconds left.

Smith, who played in 50 games for the 76ers last season, finished with 11 points and 13 assists.

TIP-INS

Pistons: After setting an NBA mark for futility by a team attempting 10 free throws with a 3-for-17 performance from the foul line on Wednesday, the Pistons were 18 for 21 from the line against Philadelphia. Smith started the first 21 games of the season in place of the injured Jackson (knee). Detroit’s previous scoring high was 125 in a 125-124 win at Portland on Jan. 7.

76ers: Gerald Henderson (hip) missed his second straight game. Philadelphia’s 15 first-half turnovers equaled the most in any half this season.

1) DeMarcus Cousins puts up 27 and 14 but Rockets expose question in rout of Pelicans. DeMarcus Cousins tried to give the people what they paid to see Thursday night — he got deep position and sealed his man inside for buckets, he showed his shooting range near the top of the key, and on the other end he blocked four shots. Cousins put up 27 points and 14 rebounds in his Pelicans debut.

However, the Houston Rockets ran the Pelicans out of the building in a 30-point win, a game where most of the second half was garbage time. The game made Chris Herring at fivethirtyeight.com look prescient — Cousins’ Pelicans couldn’t handle the pace of the Rockets. That’s maybe not a shock in the sense that the Rockets play at one of the fastest paces in the league and have played faster and faster as the season has worn on (fastest in the NBA in the past 10 games). What’s not as well known is the Pelicans play at a top 10 pace for the season. However, Cousins likes to hold the ball and has been having a career-best season in one of the NBA’s slower offenses. He can get out and run, he can play and play well in an uptempo offense, but it’s not where he’s at his best. How is Alvin Gentry going to find a balance between these competing forces?

Thursday night was not going to answer every question, particularly on a night when Jrue Holiday plays poorly at the point and turns the ball over against a team that thrives on live-ball turnovers. But how fast the Pelicans play with Cousins, and how much coach Alvin Gentry staggers Cousins and Anthony Davis, will be things to watch in the coming weeks.

As for the Rockets, just acquired Lou Williams had a team-high 27 points. He’s going to fit in just fine, thank you very much.

However, who had the best Thursday? Who had the best trade deadline day itself? The Dallas Mavericks.

We’ve all watched them try to find their next center for a while, complete with the DeAndre Jordan drama and Blake Griffin barricading the door (not really). Now the Mavs got their guy — Nerlens Noel. He’s athletic, he rolls to the rim and finishes strong in the paint, and he’s just 22. Sure there are questions — Noel has a worrying injury history and a limited offensive game (but he stays in his lane) — but he was going to be a highly sought after restricted free agent this summer and the Mavericks just got his rights and now can match any offer. Which will likely be expensive ($100 million?), but he could anchor the Mavs inside for a decade.

The real reason this is a win for Dallas is all they gave up was Justin Anderson (a potentially nice “3&D” player), Andrew Bogut (who the Sixers will waive), and what was billed as a first-round pick but is top 18 protected this year so it will revert to two second rounders. That’s almost nothing.

3) Watch Kemba Walker and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope put on a show and force OT in eventual Pistons win. If you want the most entertaining game of Thursday night, it was the Hornets and the Pistons going to overtime as Walker and Caldwell-Pope exchanged buckets. Don’t take my word for it, check it out for yourself.

Walker finished the night with 34 points, but Caldwell-Pope had 33 and his Pistons got the 114-108 win at home.

Drama, there was plenty of that. Rumors? Check. Hype? An overdose of it.

But actual trades, there were not a lot of those at the NBA trade deadline, like most years. And also like most years, there were few real game changers — while a big name or two changed teams, did anyone move into contention? Not sold that happened.

Still, there were winners and losers. And it’s time to break them all down.

Here are my top three winners and losers.

WINNERS:

New Orleans Pelicans. A small market team that fell into one franchise cornerstone star fell into another one Sunday because the Sacramento Kings wanted to move DeMarcus Cousins fast, before the owner changed his mind again, and said team seems to have a difficult-to-explain fascination with Buddy Hield. Now with Cousins and Anthony Davis, the Pelicans have potentially the best frontcourt in the NBA. (I say potentially because we need to see them actually play for a while before making declarations.)

There’s still work to do in New Orleans — re-sign Jrue Holiday this summer, get more shooting, find a wing defender — but this team is in position to make a playoff push this season, then be much more of a threat next season. The hardest part of assembling a great team is getting the superstars because there is a limited supply. The Pelicans have two of them. Now we see what they do with it, but this is great news for a small market team that can struggle to get attention in football country. People will be watching now.

Toronto Raptors. Heading into the run-up to the trade deadline, their weak spot was the four, plus they needed to get more defense.

Then over the course of a week, the Raptors added Serge Ibaka and on deadline day P.J. Tucker in a fantastic trade. While Boston can sit back with those two Brooklyn picks and say the future is a few years from now, the Raptors can’t — their window is now. Ibaka isn’t the All-Star, borderline Defensive Player of the Year anymore, he doesn’t move like that guy now, but he’s still a huge upgrade over what they had. Tucker is the kind of physical defender Toronto needs in the postseason. I’m not sold the Raptors stand a chance against a healthy Cavaliers team, but their moves may have moved them back up to being the second best team in the East — now they need to make up the two games on the Wizards and move back up to the three seed in the East. They don’t want to be the four seed and get Cleveland in the second round.

Dallas Mavericks. They have been looking for their next Tyson Chandler for a while. They thought they had that and more a couple of years ago before DeAndre Jordan had a change of heart. Now they got their guy — Nerlens Noel. He could be an anchor for a decade, and the Mavs gave up only Justin Anderson (a potentially nice “3&D” player), Andrew Bogut (who the Sixers will waive), and what was billed as a first-round pick but is top 18 protected this year so it will revert to two second rounders.

There are reasons for concern for Dallas — Noel has a worrying injury history, a limited offensive game (but he stays in his lane), and the fact he’s likely going to get a contract in the $100 million range this summer — but it was still a smart roll of the dice for Cuban’s team. Noel could be the center of the future, paired with Harrison Barnes for years as they Mavs rebuild in a post-Dirk era.

Honorable mention: Houston Rockets, Anthony Davis, Nerlens Noel.

LOSERS:

DeMarcus Cousins. There are 30 million reasons Cousins ends up on this side of the list. There may well be positives for him — he got out of dysfunctional Sacramento, he gets to play with a star in Anthony Davis, he can reset the narrative on his career — but he still lost out on $30 million because he will not get the designated player contract. It’s through no fault of his own, and his agent tried to prevent the move, but in the end Cousins lost out on a lot of cash when he got traded.

Sacramento Kings. Like everything with Sacramento, the trade of Cousins just didn’t feel thought out. In the least. It’s not moving on from Cousins that I’m questioning — that is a defendable action both in terms of on-court results and upcoming costs — but the execution of it. Forget that going back as far as couple years ago before the 2015 draft there were much better offers available — the Lakers offered both their first round picks, which became D'Angelo Russell and Larry Nance Jr., plus other parts — even now there were other teams that wanted in on the bidding and were never called. They were settled on Buddy Heild, who they like more than anyone else in the league, and wanted to move quickly before owner Vivek Ranadive changed his mind again. Maybe the Pelicans’ offer was the best one on the table right now, but better run franchises find ways to get more out of big deals because they don’t feel rushed.

Philadelphia 76ers. GM Bryan Colangelo misread the market on big men, and it hurt the Sixers come the trade deadline. He had the chance to move Jahlil Okafor — the guy the Sixers preferred to move at the deadline — for better offers last summer. Same with Noel. But Colangelo waited too long to make his move, waiting for a better offer (and to see if Noel and Joel Embiid could play together), to the point that he had to trade Noel and get back just a couple of second round picks and a potential 3&D wing who couldn’t get into Rick Carlisle’s rotation in Dallas.

Bottom line, Philly traded their better availble big man for too little, and still have the guy they didn’t want on their roster. That’s not a good day.

Honorable mention: New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers (two teams that stood pat because they couldn’t make the move they needed — which is better than bad move, but not good).

Noel was traded to the Mavericks for Justin Anderson, Andrew Bogut (who will be traded again by the deadline or waived by Philly after), and a protected first-round pick in the 2017 draft that will almost certainly convert to two second-round picks (2017 and 2018). It’s a great landing spot for Noel, Dallas will re-sign him this summer and see him as the future of the franchise at the five.

What we as fans tend to focus on is things like that last paragraph — who “won” or who “lost” the trade, how it fits on the court — and we can forget these are human beings. They are leaving their home, their friends, and in many cases asking family to pack up and move with them. There is a human side, a human cost to these trades, which we can’t overlook.